The Lost Man

After dinner, Nathan plays guitar on the porch, and Sophie comes out. He says he has played every day since he was her age, except for a few years when he didn’t have a guitar. When she asks why he didn’t, he remembers that Carl forced him and Cam to burn their most prized possessions as punishment for running away. Sophie tells him that, in the version of the stockman story Cam told her, he tripped climbing a fence and accidentally shot himself in the head. Nathan knows this is not the real story but decides not to correct her. Sophie thinks Katy, who supervises their lessons through School of the Air, isn’t actually a trained teacher. He reflects that the backpackers could be anyone.

Ilse comes out to tell Sophie to go to bed and stays after her daughter leaves. She tells Nathan she didn’t know Jenna Moore called. Cam told her the story but made it seem like nothing serious. She asks if anyone believed Jenna, and he remembers that Steve did. When she asks if he believed Cam, he says yes, but she seems doubtful of his honesty. Nathan remembers when Carl confronted him, asking if the story was true. Nathan hesitated before defending Cam, and Cam never forgave him.

Nathan looks online for information about Katy and Simon but doesn’t find anything. Harry interrupts to ask if it’s true that Nathan let his gun license lapse. He worries because Nathan lives alone and frequently turns off his radio. Nathan agrees to renew it. After Harry leaves, Nathan searches for information about Jenna and finds that she is a florist in England. When he calls the shop, an employee says she is in Bali for three weeks.

Nathan hears a sound and follows it to the garage, where he finds Xander searching for whatever Cam was searching for (missing money, according to Lo). While they search, Xander points out that Bub might feel outnumbered by Nathan and Ilse regarding the future of the farm. Nathan reveals that he uses the income from his share of Burley Downs to keep his farm afloat. He asked Cam to buy his property several times, but Cam refused. He realizes that now he can probably get Bub and Ilse to buy it and feels relief at the thought. While they are searching, Xander finds a framed picture drawn by Lo. It is a Christmas present from Cam to Ilse. The card with it says “Forgive me” (176).

The next morning, the contractor scheduled to repair Nathan’s coolroom calls. He went to Nathan’s house, but it was locked. He won’t be back in the area until February. While they’re on the phone, Nathan flips through the logbook that rests on the telephone table. Whenever someone leaves the house, they are supposed to write where they are going in the logbook, although it doesn’t always happen.

Nathan looks at Cam’s last entry stating he was going to Lehmann’s Hill. Other entries around it show that Liz was riding Sophie’s horse, Harry and Simon were checking bores, and Bub was out overnight in the north paddock. After Nathan hangs up, he turns and finds Simon in the shadows behind him. The other man seems nervous about the possibility of an investigation, and Nathan wonders again why Cam hired the backpackers. Simon tells him about an argument Harry and Cam had before he died in which Harry said that he knew what was going on without explaining further.

Ilse asks for Nathan’s help with a calf tangled in a wire fence. They drive in his car, and Ilse tells a version of the stockman story in which he died in a stampede.

Nathan pins the calf while Ilse uses wire clippers to free it. He tells her that Jenna is apparently in Bali. Ilse says Cam called Jenna three times in the weeks before his death. He also called the medical center in St. Helens and a cheap hotel there. When she asks Nathan if he thinks Cam had something to fear from Jenna, he hesitates before saying no.

On the way back to the house, they discuss whether she should tell Glenn about Cam calling Jenna. When they return, Liz tells Nathan that the autopsy is finished. Thinking of Cam’s call to the medical center, he asks if they found anything strange, but she says no. After Liz goes inside, Xander shows Nathan Lo’s sketchbook, which has a drawing of the stockman’s grave with two girls (apparently Sophie and Lo) standing near it.

They ask the girls when they were at the grave. Sophie says Ilse took them for a picnic, just after Sophie hurt her arm, but they left soon after they arrived. Lo tells them that Cam saw her picture of the grave and got angry at Ilse.

Nathan goes looking for Ilse to ask her about taking the girls to stockman’s grave but finds Katy crying in the schoolroom. She says she is homesick and wants to leave but Simon isn’t ready. Nathan suggests she talk to Steve about her emotional health. She believes there is something suspicious about Cam’s death. The morning he left, he told her he would be back, and she is sure he planned on it. Before she walks away, Katy mentions that when Cam spoke to Ilse before he left, their conversation was longer than just goodbye. 

Nathan examines Cam’s painting in the living room, running his thumb over a shadowy smudge. Ilse reminds him that the rule of the house is to not touch the painting. On questioning, she tells him she took the girls to the stockman’s grave for a picnic, but they left early—it was too hot, and Lo was scared. Cam was angry with her for being out at such a dangerous time of year. As she leans forward to touch the painting herself, Sophie yells at her from the doorway. She is visibly upset until they both back away. Ilse takes her up to bed. Nathan notices headlights through the window and realizes Cam’s car is running.

Xander is in the car and admits he misses Cam. Suddenly, he asks Nathan to move to Brisbane, worried that he will end up like Cam. When Nathan demurs, Xander presses him, saying everyone knows he isn’t doing well. He brings up Nathan’s lapsed gun license. To Xander, it means that Nathan doesn’t trust himself around guns.

Xander asks him to keep his radio on, and Nathan reminds him that he checks in with Burley Downs every night through a GPS signal. A year earlier, after he was isolated by flooding for two weeks, Harry gave him the tracker and asked him to press the button each night. Xander suggests he take Cam’s dog for company, but Nathan doesn’t want her to get poisoned like his previous dog.

While they are talking, Nathan remembers something about being on the phone with the contractor. Xander, seeing Nathan’s distraction, gets upset and goes inside. Nathan stays in the car until he puts the memory together and is shaken by what he remembers.